Determination of the Optimum Partial Factors in Structural Reliability Analysis

In this paper, an optimization method is used to determine the values of partial factors in structural reliability analysis. Once the proper objective function is defined, a group of optimum partial factors, which enable the objective function to take its minimum value, will need to be determined. In the present study, two kinds of objective function are considered. The conditions that have to be satisfied for optimum partial factors of these two kinds of objective function are then derived. In both cases, the result shows that the partial factors of both dead and live loads should satisfy the same proportional expression and should be inversely proportional to the partial factor of resistance force. A simple beam is used as an example to illustrate the computations involved. It is found that the design concept proposed in this paper leads to a design criterion similar to that which applies to the conventional deterministic method. Thus, this concept can be easily used in practice. The illustrative example shows that the values of the dead load and live load have a significant effect on the reliability design criteria.